New for Traders: Week ending December 21

IntercontinentalExchange (ICE) announced a definitive agreement to acquire NYSE Euronext in a transaction valued at $33.12 per NYSE Euronext share (roughly $8.2 billion). The exchanges also entered into a deal under which ICE Clear Europe will clear NYSE Liffe’s derivatives markets.

Morgan Stanley will make a strategic equity investment in Eris, a futures exchange offering interest rate swap futures. The financial terms of the arrangement, which is expected to close early next year, were not disclosed.

The Depository Trust & Clearing Corp. launched a data center in Singapore, part of a larger effort to establish a trade repository for over-the-counter derivatives.

The European Energy Exchange plans to launch three new futures contracts for trading of hydroelectric power from the Scandinavian and Alpine regions, along with wind power from northern Europe.

The Tokyo Commodity Exchange Inc. (TOCOM) and Nikkei Inc. launched new indexes based on their co-branded indexes. The Nikkei-TOCOM Leverage Index, which is available on a daily basis on TOCOM’s website, is designed to realize a high-risk/high-return investment strategy based on the expectation of a bullish market.

The Miami Options Exchange (MIAX) launched on Dec. 7 after receiving regulatory approval from the Securities and Exchange Commission. It is the 11th U.S. equity derivatives market.

The International Securities Exchange (ISE) will launch trading in Mini Options on March 18, 2013. ISE is the first exchange to confirm a launch date for the options, which will represent a deliverable of 10 shares of an underlying security. Mini Options will initially be listed on APPL, AMZN, GLD, GOOG and SPY.

Thomson Reuters enhanced its FX matching platform designed to boost capacity, scalability and performance. New features include a graphical user interface and click to trade capability.

Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) will launch two new cash-settled forex futures contacts for the Indian rupee (INR)/U.S. dollar and Brazil real/U.S. dollar beginning Jan. 28, 2013. ICE is the first U.S. exchange to launch an INR futures contract.

NASDAQ will now include U.S. consumer demand data on the NASDAQ OMX Event-Driven Analytics service. The index, which will be delivered to the service five minutes before it is sent to other end-users, predicts trends in American consumer spending.

SGX and Eurex will offer market access through their data center linkage beginning in January.

The CFTC approved CME’s application to establish its CME Repository Service, a swap data repository. The exchange will waive reporting fees for the service through Sept. 30, 2013, including back-loaded trades.

CME Group Inc. and the National Futures Association chose AlphaMetrix360 as their electronic data aggregation services provider. The new partnership is designed to create a system to collect bank balances for depositories holding customer-segregated, secured amount and sequestered funds for futures commission merchants.

The U.S. Treasury Department exempted forex swaps and forwards from Dodd-Frank regulations that will apply to other derivatives. The agency explained the decision by saying that “unlike other derivatives, FX swaps and forwards already trade in a highly-transparent, liquid and efficient market.”